A wide variety of video playback devices are available in the marketplace. Most people own, or are familiar with, a video cassette recorder (VCR), also referred to as a video tape recorder (VTR). More recently, video recorders that use computer magnetic hard disks rather than magnetic cassette tapes to store video programs have appeared in the market. For example, the ReplayTVJ recorder and the TiVOJ recorder digitally record television programs on hard disk drives using, for example, MPEG-2 compression. Additionally, some video playback devices may record on a readable/writable digital versatile disk (DVD) rather than a magnetic disk.
In recent years the number of video programs available for viewing has increased significantly. It is becoming increasingly important for viewers to have the ability to quickly search through a video program to find a portion of the video program (or an event in the video program) that the viewer is interested in viewing. The current options for viewers who wish to locate a desired portion of a video program in a recorded video program include (1) watching the entire video program, (2) fast forwarding through the recording of the entire video program in order to find the portion of the program that is of interest, and (3) using data from an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) that provides only a general program description.
In the analog domain video cassette recorders (VCRs) have a mechanism that allows a user to add an “index” mark to a particular point in a videotape. These analog “index” marks can be located by fast forwarding or rewinding the videotape. However, these analog “index” marks are lost when the videotape is ejected from the VCR.
In the video indexing domain a variety of methods have been developed to provide automatic indexing and video access. However, these methods do not index individual video points.
There is therefore a need in the art for a system and method that allows a user to identify the location of individual events in a video program for future access. There is also a need in the art for a system and method that allows a user to annotate the content of a video program by entering user comments.